Disposable or single use applicators are known for facilitating the injection of a medicine into a body cavity, such as for treating vaginal yeast infections and the like. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,691,982 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,720,881, both to Jones, each discloses a disposable applicator including a barrel with a quantity of medicine stored in a rupturable container positioned within one end of the barrel. A tubular plunger having a star-shaped working end is pushed into the barrel to rupture a seal on the end of the container and then progressively crush the medicine bearing container to thereby eject the medicine from the end of the barrel. Another similar applicator including a self-contained dosage of medicine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,486,056 to Oclassen.
Modern applicators are currently available for treating vaginal yeast infections and the like, typically for a seven day treatment period during which daily doses of the medicine are administered. One such medicine for treating vaginal yeast infections is available from Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation of Raritan, N.J. under the trademark designation Terazol.RTM.7. Such medicines are commonly supplied in a seven day treatment package including a squeeze tube along with a single reusable plastic applicator. The squeeze tube contains a seven day supply of the gel-like medicine. The applicator supplied as part of the treatment package includes a plastic barrel and an inner sliding plastic plunger for ejecting the medicine from the barrel.
Unfortunately, a single plastic applicator must be cleaned for reuse during the seven day treatment period. The medicines used are not typically readily soluble in water and, therefore, cleaning of a used applicator is often difficult and messy. Moreover, if cleaning of the plastic applicator is not correctly performed, the patient has a significantly greater chance of reinfection. Accordingly, one approach has been to provide seven plastic applicators within the overall treatment package so that reuse of a single applicator is not required. Unfortunately, such disposable plastic applicators are not environmentally friendly, that is, they are not biodegradable. Another shortcoming of plastic applicators is that they cannot typically receive printing inks thereon for advertising or instructional purposes.
The assignee of the present invention, Niemand Industries, Inc., had developed a spirally wound paper applicator for vaginal yeast infections and the like that was disposable, readily biodegradable, and capable of being printed on, thus overcoming several of the disadvantages of other applicators. The applicator included a paper barrel having opposing open ends and a slidable plunger having a closed end for dispensing or ejecting medicine out of the barrel. The applicator included an inturned lip of the end of the barrel inserted into the patient, the paper was approved for direct human contact, and indicia on the plunger indicated when the plunger was filled to the desired dosage. Niemand's disposable applicators were distributed to doctors for use with medicine samples as typically provided to doctors by pharmaceutical companies.
The plunger of the disposable applicator offered by Niemand had an open end extending from the barrel, and the barrel itself had an open opposite end. Thus, the applicator presented two open ends of similar diameter to the patient for filling with the medicine from a squeeze tube. Accordingly, many patients inadvertently or accidentally filled the hollow tubular plunger rather than the barrel, despite printed indicia on the end of the plunger instructing the patient to "FILL OTHER END" of the applicator. Once the hollow tubular plunger is inadvertently filled with medicine, the quantity of medicine is wasted and the applicator is typically discarded. The lost amount of medication may significantly reduce the effectiveness of the overall treatment.
In addition to the shortcoming with respect to incorrect filling of the disposable applicator, the previous applicator offered by Niemand was delivered to physicians in large lots of individual applicators. Accordingly, the physician was required to separate out a desired number of applicators for a given number of treatments, such as typically seven, and give the medicine and applicators to the patient either as individual items, in a bag, or in another makeshift package. Thus, individual applicators could be readily misplaced and the full prescribed treatment period not followed by the patient.